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Microsoft Named on Spam Host List

According to a report posted late last week by InternetNews.com, spam researcher Spamhaus.org (www.spamhaus.org) released a list of the most "spam-friendly" email services, naming Microsoft among them.

Microsoft is number five on Spamhaus's list, according to the report, a status that can be attributed largely to the size and popularity of its free Live services, which spammers are apparently using to send out messages.

According to Spamhaus, quoted in the InternetNews article, the company has contacted Microsoft many times about the issues, but claims the company has ignored the alerts.

The use of free hosting services to distribute malware has been documented before, and is one of the obvious struggles for providers of free services. Google, for instance, has had struggles with its Blogger service being used to distribute malware.

Microsoft says it does its best to keep spam off its network. The Live terms of service expressly forbid users from sending out unwanted email messages. And a Microsoft representative quoted in the InternetNews story says spammers are "aggressively removed" from the service when they are identified.

According to Spamhaus, Windows Live Spaces and other Live services are also used by spammers and scammers, often to host scam sites. Monitoring the use of such a widespread free service can be a Herculean task for

Aggressively focusing on the hosts being used by spammers has shown some very positive results in recent weeks. Spam activist effectively shutting down hosting provider McColo recently led to a drop in spam volumes of up to 75 percent, according to some reports.

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